Nancy Jean, I think the kids from your house left and descended upon ours. There were several large houses at Grayton where this happened as they were evicted, one after another. Ours were, too. Grayton Beach seems to have been targeted for spring breakers two years ago. They all lost their rent and the deposits with the evictions, so hopefully some Mom and Dad rec'd an expensive lesson. The following year, our rental company allowed in a group of 20 high school graduates with no parent, just an unrelated "chaperone" who was never there no matter what time we called the house. This guy bragged to our housekeeper that he was employed by the same agency that provided some of the chaperones for the ill-fated Aruba trip, when the lovely young Birmingham woman disappeared. He bought beer for the kids to have a big beer party, and we had kids diving off the third floor offset deck of our house into the swimming pool (max. depth of 9 ft.). Just a tragedy waiting to happen, all around.
It is imperative that owners hold the rental companies accountable for this kind of oversight or lack of attention. We told ours that if this ever happened again, they were toast and that we'd hold them responsible. Now for the period during March/April, we require that parents sign a release form that indicates how many adults and how many minors (and their ages) will occupy the house. Only after we see this form signed and returned do we agree that they can rent. And I make calls before and during the stay. We also have a family member who lives nearby check regularly on the house during these periods. If we ever catch that again, we have vowed to call the County Sheriff and have every underaged person in the house hauled off to jail. It is as illegal to serve minors alcohol in a private home as it is in a bar, after all. If parents can't find the time to accompany their kids on a spring break holiday, I figure they can burn up Highway 331 to bail them out of jail.
While this sounds very harsh, the truth is that many parents refuse to believe that their little angels could drink to excess or intentionally damage someone else's property (not to mention risking their own lives). The best of kids will be effected by peer pressure, especially in a setting that is fueled by high spirits after the stress of exams and coupled with excessive drinking. The reality check comes too late, when a parent is called to the ER at 3 a.m. to find an alcohol-poisoned child who is on a ventilator in the ICU (or worse).
I honestly think kids were better off when their folks assumed they were up to no good or were ninnies, and we had to work hard to prove them wrong! I don't think the world or human nature has really changed all that much (alchol and drugs and sex were always around), but some of today's parents want to be pals with their kids rather than parents who help them set boundaries. California is particularly permissive in this way, it seems. The irony in this is that kids will grow up to criticize their parents for not being stricter. If I hear one more parent say, "The kids are my buds," I'm going to
